Ten things I learned from my year in FSU :)

It’s hard to believe that there are only two more weeks left in this semester and only three more till I get back home for summer break… Though at times I find myself feeling nostalgic about leaving FSU for three and a half months and leaving my whole ‘being independent-doing what I want’ part of life, going back home is my priority right now.

The President of FSU, Eric J. Baron, is hosting an ice cream social tomorrow, Thursday April 14th on Landis Green. It is apparently an annual event where students, faculty and staff come together to have free ice cream and cookies. In addition to that a live DJ would be there to provide entertainment along with a Jousting Arena, a Bungee Run and the FSU Flying High Circus.

Once again today I find myself hit with a serious dose of writers block, and therefore instead of writing about mind boggling philosophy or the secrets of the universe, as I usually do… I am going to write about the ten things I have learned during this year at FSU.

1) Sir Cecil Beaton said, “Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the common place, and the slaves of the ordinary”.

2) Procrastination and being bad with time is a disability but it is also extremely gratifying. It feels amazing when you are just sitting around doing nothing, in a way I feel almost rebellious and there is a slight feeling of adrenaline which hits me when I waste time. It’s like Steve Hobbs says, it’s like freedom in a bottle.

3) Silent movies are amazingly entertaining. It should be remembered that they were the first forms or the beginning of film and at times they are

very sloppy with a tadbit overacting with bad makeup, but they were a brilliant start. Nosferatu, which I saw this weekend, is one of the creepiest characters in movie history (according to me). Nosferatu is in essence Dracula. The makeup was weird and at times comical but his blank stare and his figure gave me a chill. One of the striking shot was a scene in which he rises from his coffin. When he opened it, it was not bats which came out but rats…

4) People in America love causes…especially if stuff they buy is for a cause for example everyone on my campus is after TOMS shoes. An organization which would donate a pair of shoes to a child in need in third world countries, every time you would buy one of their shoes. So people want to get them more so because they are for a cause… wouldn’t it make more sense just to donate the money that they would use to buy the shoes instead and let the children in those countries have two or more pairs of shoes?

5) Girls here have the biggest desire to look like Amélie.

6) Americans know absolutely nothing about Football…yes! Football the actual kicking the ball with the foot game (I hate calling it soccer)…all they know is that… England, Brazil are good.

7) Americans love world music. I should point out that most of my judgments are based on my observations of my friends and people that I interact with. My roommate, Laura, has a huge collection of artists from all over the place from Beirut to Sigur Ros to the compilations of Fleck, Hussain and Meyer… which is fantastic!

8) Organic food and items are very much in here. Americans would do anything for organic Food,. However I just weirdly realized now that we are so dependent on agribusiness foods that if the world was to switch to 100% organic food tomorrow, almost half the world would die from starvation.

9) Paler than White :

from left to right: Chicago (first two), Atlanta, Austin, San Francisco, Brooklyn, Santa Fe, Toronto, Boston, Seattle, and New York.

10) Ramen is the best investment. Ever. You can cook it in the microwave or over the stove :O